Our Restless Earth

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 7, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 26.

Our Restless Earth

It is not in Portugal alone that the old earth has been heaving. June 9 the Island of Sumatra was tremendously shaken. The temblor rent the village of Korinchi, 180 miles southeast of Padang, on the night of June 3, and 200 persons were killed and many hundreds were injured. The town, which had a population of five thousand, was practically destroyed. Between June 9 and 11 the Riviera district in France was decidedly shaken, practically the whole south of France. Seven villages were reported destroyed, a number of persons killed, and millions of dollars of loss entailed.

The latter part of the month of May, Chicago, which felt herself immune from almost everything but Lake Michigan breezes, was shaken, and from Chicago westward. Chimneys were toppled over, dishes were broken, and clocks stopped. No serious damage was done, but just enough of the earth's ague was manifested to show to the people of that section that they are not immune.

More and more, it is hoped, the world will come to believe what God has said in His word, that the earth has waxed old like a garment; an old garment is subject to outbreakings in unexpected places. Never will the old earth become stable again until sin shall have been swept away from it forever, and God's laws both moral and physical are absolutely operative throughout His whole creation.